Press Release: State aid: Commission requests Romania to recover €27 million unlawful aid from Automobile Craiova

The European Commission closed its in-depth investigation under EC Treaty state aid rules into the privatisation of Automobile Craiova. The investigation, opened in October 2007 (see IP/07/1467), found that Romania had imposed conditions on the sale that aimed at ensuring a certain production and employment level, accepting in exchange a lower sales price. The higher production and employment level achieved for Craiova through the conditional sale and the lower revenue Romania had conversely earned constitute state aid. In order to avoid that companies receive unfair advantages over competitors, aid can only be granted under strict conditions. None of these conditions applied to the privatisation and the aid is therefore incompatible with the Single Market. In order to redress the distortion of competition caused by the unlawful aid, the Romanian Government must recover €27 million from Automobile Craiova.